New York’s highest court strikes down noncitizen voting in NYC

By Brigid Bergin
March 20, 2025

New York City’s controversial local law that would have allowed some people without U.S. citizenship to vote in city elections was ruled unconstitutional by the state’s highest court in a decision released Thursday.
“Whatever the future may bring, the New York Constitution as it stands today draws a firm line restricting voting to citizens,” Court of Appeals Chief Judge Rowan Wilson wrote in the 6-1 majority opinion issued Thursday. Associate Judge Jenny Rivera was the lone dissenter.
The ruling caps a protracted battle over who is permitted to vote in New York City’s municipal elections and puts an end, for now, to the fight to enfranchise more than 800,000 noncitizens who were legally living, working or going to school in the five boroughs.
The law, which the New York City Council passed in late 2021, would have allowed city residents with certain legal status – including green cards, work authorization and DACA status – to vote in city elections for mayor, comptroller, public advocate, borough president and the Council.

The law took effect in January 2022, just nine days after Mayor Eric Adams took office. The next day, Republicans led by Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella filed a lawsuit arguing that New York’s Constitution restricted voting rights in all elections to U.S. citizens and that the law would dilute citizens’ votes. The suit set off a three-year legal battle.